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Two weeks ago, government forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo launched a major offensive against renegade troops based in the eastern province, North Kivu.In the latest outbreak of fighting in a decade of violence, the rebels have repeatedly defeated the largely undisciplined and untrained government soldiers and now hold a stronger position than before the offensive began.For the past 10 years, the civilian population here has been the main victim of the fighting. Many cannot count the number of times they have been forced to flee, with their worldly possessions on their back, their homes and farmland left behind.Like ants, they walk in rows miles long, fleeing the violence, looking for safety.Some find refuge in displacement camps, others with host families. But many are forced to sleep outside, in the cold, without food or shelter. Many are robbed by roaming fighters; many are raped.The conflict goes back to neighboring Rwanda's genocide, in which almost one-million ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred. The Hutu perpetrators of that genocide, including a group known as Interhamwe, and more than a million Hutu refugees fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1994.Two years later, Rwanda's Tutsi-led government supported a rebel movement in Congo determined to wipe out the former Interahamwe and other perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide.The rebel movement kicked off the first of two civil wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Both wars have revolved around the Hutu refugees living in Congo. Both have also revolved around Congo 's extensive supply of rich mineral resources. The potential to exploit those resources has brought many of Congo 's neighbors into the conflict.The last civil war officially ended in 2003 and elections were held in 2006, but ethnic tensions remain.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
